Children around the world will die because of anti-vaccine rhetoric

Lives are being put at risk by politicians like Robert Kennedy Jr, who are stoking immunisation fears, Andrew Pollard and Will Hutton write

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A tragedy is unfolding as a result of a sudden, catastrophic reversal of life chances for the world's children.

In the next five years, at least 14 million deaths, including 4 million children under five, are expected as a result of massive aid cuts implemented or planned by the G7, along with reductions in funding for the international vaccine alliance, Gavi.

As a result of the cuts to UK funding alone, according to the One Campaign, tens of millions fewer children will be vaccinated against life-threatening diseases. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of children will lose out on food delivered by the UN World Food Programme.

According to the UN, 333 million children live in extreme poverty (defined as living on less than £1.58 a day), and this is set to get much worse. US cuts in funding for HIV treatment in Africa will lead to 1 million more children becoming infected with HIV, 2.8 million more being orphaned and half a million dying from infection because of loss of access to lifesaving drugs.

Overseas aid is too often presented as costly altruism when the priority must be at home. Yet poverty, and the death and disease that spring from it, threatens donors and recipients alike, especially when cuts involve reducing or eliminating vaccination programmes.

Put to one side, if you must, the moral argument that we should not walk by while so many innocent lives are lost, and families face poverty, hunger and suffering.